Digital memory system

ABSTRACT

A digital memory system is provided wherein a received radio frequency signal is separated into a pair of quadrature signal channels, the signals in each one of the channel being sampled and stored in a digital memory at a rate substantially lower than the Nyquist sampling rate. During recall the stored samples are sequentially read from the memories at the rate at which they were stored. The samples read from the memories in each of the channels are sampled at the relatively low sampling rate and are then combined into a single channel after shifting the phase of the signals in one of the channels 90 degrees, to form a composite signal having a plurality of radio frequency signal components, each one being separated in frequency from another one by an amount having a predetermined relationship to the pulse repetition frequency of the sampling pulses; one of such radio frequency signal components having the frequency of the received signal. Means, fed by the received radio frequency signal, are provided to selectively couple only the one of the produced plurality of radio frequency signal components of the composite signal having the frequency of the received radio frequency signal to an output for retransmission.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to digital memory systems and moreparticularly to digital memory systems adapted to store samples ofreceived radio frequency signals and to enable subsequent retransmissionof such received radio frequency signals from the stored samples.

As is known in the art, it is frequently desired to digitally storesamples of a received radio frequency signal and later reconstruct suchradio frequency signal from such stored samples for retransmission. Inone such system the received signal is periodically sampled at or abovethe Nyquist sampling rate, each sample is next converted into acorresponding digital word, and each digital word is then stored in adigital memory. When it is desired to retransmit the radio frequencysignal, the stored digital words are sequentially read from the memoryin the sequence in which they were stored, such read digital words areconverted into corresponding voltages to produce a radio frequencysignal which is then amplified and retransmitted.

With such arrangement the degree to which the retransmitted signalresembles the received radio frequency signals depends, inter alia, onsampling the received radio frequency signal at a rate at, or above, theNyquist sampling rate. Consequently, in a system which is required toprocess received signals having frequencies within a predeterminedbandwidth the received signal would typically be processed through apair of quadrature channels each having a bandwidth half thepredetermined bandwidth of the receiver and the samples in each channelwould be taken at a rate corresponding to the predetermined bandwidth ofthe receiver. It follows then that the receiver bandwidth is limited bythe sampling rate limits of digital components used in the memorysystem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention a digital memory system isprovided wherein a received radio frequency signal is separated into apair of quadrature signal channels, the signals in each of the channelsbeing simultaneously sampled by sampling pulses produced at a ratesubstantially lower than the Nyquist sampling rate. The samples in eachof the channels are converted to digital words which are sequentiallystored in a digital memory. During recall the stored samples in each ofthe digital memories are sequentially read from the memories in responseto the sampling pulses. The read samples in each of the channels aresimultaneously sampled by the sampling pulses. The later producedsamples in one of the channels are passed through a 90 degree phaseshifter and are combined with the later produced samples in the otherchannel to produce a composite signal having a plurality of radiofrequency signal components separated in frequency one from another byan amount having a predetermined relationship to the sampling rate; oneof such radio frequency signal components having the frequency of thereceived signal. Means, fed by the received radio frequency signal, areprovided to couple the one of the produced plurality of radio frequencysignal components having the frequency of the received radio frequencysignal to an output for retransmission.

With such arrangement, because samples of the received radio frequencysignal are taken at a rate substantially lower than that correspondingto the predetermined bandwidth of the receiver, the system is able tooperate with received signals having frequencies which extend over arelatively wide bandwidth.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the system includes a firstpair of sampling means, each one thereof being fed by sampling pulses.The received signal is separated into a pair of quadrature signalchannels, the phase of the portion of the received signal fed to one ofthe first pair of sampling means differing 90 degrees from the phase ofthe portion of the received signal fed to the other one of the pair ofsampling means. The sampling pulses are produced at a samplingfrequency, f_(s), which is substantially lower than the highest receivedsignal frequency. Each one of the pair of first sampling means therebyproduces a sequence of samples of the signals in each one of thechannels at a rate substantially lower than the Nyquist sampling rate.

Samples of the signals in each one of the pair of channels are stored ina corresponding one of a pair of digital memories. During recall, thestored samples are sequentially read from such memories in response tothe sampling pulses, the plurality of memories operating simultaneously.Such read samples are fed to a second pair of sampling means togetherwith the sampling pulses. The samples produced by one of the second pairof sampling means are phase shifted 90 degrees and then fed to a summingnetwork, along the samples produced by the other one of the pair ofsampling means, to produce a composite signal having a plurality ofradio frequency signal components, one of such radio frequencycomponents having the frequency of the received signal and the otherones of such radio frequency signal components differing in frequencyfrom each other by the pulse repetition frequency of the samplingpulses.

A selector means, fed by the received radio frequency signals, couplesthe one of the plurality of produced radio frequency signal componentsof the composite signal having the frequency of the received signal toan output for retransmission. In a preferred embodiment of the inventionthe selector means includes a plurality of input band pass filters whichare tuned to contiguous portions of a predetermined band of radiofrequencies, and which are fed by the received radio frequency signal.Each one of a middle portion of the plurality of input band pass filtershas a bandwidth equal half the frequency of the sampling pulses. Aplurality of output band pass filters tuned to overlapping portions ofthe predetermined band of radio frequencies is also included. Each oneof the output band pass filters has a center frequency corresponding tothe center frequency of one of the input band pass filters and abandwidth equal to the pulse repetition frequency of the samplingsignal. Means are included for determining which one of the input bandpass filters passes the received signal and such means couples one ofthe produced radio frequency signal components of the composite signalto an output through a selected one of the plurality of output bandpassfilters; the coupled one of the produced radio frequency signalcomponents having the frequency of the received signal at the middleportion of its pass band. The selected one of the produced radiofrequency signal components coupled to such output is thenretransmitted, such retransmitted signal having the frequency of thereceived signal. Further, with such arrangement, if the frequency of thereceived signal is within the upper or lower frequency portions of oneof the output filters it is also in the middle frequency portion of anoverlapping output filter. Under such conditions the selector couplesthe one of the frequency components of the composite signal having thefrequency of the received signal i.e. the desired radio frequency signalcomponent, through the overlapping output band pass filter.Consequently, the desired radio frequency signal component passesthrough the middle portion of the band pass of the overlapping outputfilter and, in this way, if the desired radio frequency signal has somefinite bandwidth such finite bandwidth signal may be passed to theoutput for retransmission.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above-mentioned and other features of the invention will become moreapparent by reference to the following description taken together withthe accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a digital memory system adapted to storesamples of a received radio frequency signal and to retransmit suchradio frequency signal from such stored samples.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the pass band of each of a plurality ofinput band pass filters used in the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the pass band of each one of a plurality ofoutput filters used in the system of FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring now to FIG. 1 a memory system 10 adapted to store samples of areceived radio frequency signal and retransmit such radio frequencysignal from such samples is shown, to include a receiving antenna 12,the output of which is fed to a radio frequency amplifier 14 having apredetermined bandwidth of several gigahertz, here, for example 4 to 8GHz. The output of radio frequency amplifier 14 is fed to a bank 16 ofinput band pass filters, here fifteen band pass filters 22a-22o, suchband pass filters being tuned to contiguous portions of thepredetermined, 4 to 8 GHz, band of frequency in a manner to be describedin detail in connection with FIG. 2. The amplifier 14 is also feddirectly to a sampler 18 and to a sampler 20 through a 90 degree phaseshifter 26, here a quadrature hybrid, as shown. Also fed to the pair ofsamplers 18, 20 is a series of sampling pulses produced by a pulsegenerator 24 and an oscillator 22. In particular, oscillator 22 is ofany conventional design, and produces a sinusoidal signal, here having afrequency of 500 MHz. This signal is used to periodically trigger pulsegenerator 24 here a snap, or step recovery diode, to produce a train ofsampling pulses for the pair of sampling means 18, 20 here such samplingpulses being produced at a rate of 0.5 GHz. Here the width of each oneof the sampling pulses is less than the duration of one cycle of thehighest frequency of the radio frequency signal to be passed byamplifier 14, here 8 GHz, so that the time duration of each samplingpulse is here less than 125 picoseconds.

The sampling pulses fed to sampler 18, 20 enable such samplers 18, 20 tosimultaneously sample two different portions of the received signal,each portion being simultaneously sampled in each one of the quadraturesignals. Thus if the received radio frequency signal fed to sampler 18is here represented by:

    cos 2πf.sub.r t                                         (1)

(where f_(r) is the frequency of the received signal; here 8 GHz ≧f_(r)≧4 GHz) the signal fed to sampler 20 may be represented as:

    sin 2πf.sub.r t                                         (2)

Further, in the frequency domain, the signals fed to samplers 18, 20 maybe represented as:

    π[δ(2πf-2πf.sub.r)+δ(2πf+2πf.sub.r)](3)

    ii jπ[δ(2πf+2πf.sub.r)-δ(2πf-2πf.sub.r)], (4)

respectively where f is frequency.

The sampling pulses may be represented as: ##EQU1## where such samplingpulses are here assumed to be pulses having a pulse repetitionfrequency, f_(o), here 0.5 GHz. Further, in the frequency domain suchsampling pulses may be represented as: ##EQU2##

The outputs of samplers 18, 20 may, in the frequency domain, berepresented as: ##EQU3## respectively. Such signals are fed to analog todigital (A/D) converters 28, 30, respectively as shown.

The digital signals produced by A/D converters 28, 30 (represented byequations (7) and (8), respectively) are fed to a pair of digitalmemories 32, 34. In response to a write enable signal, W, on line R/W,produced by a conventional controller 36, and in response to thesampling pulses fed to such memories 32, 34 from pulse generator 24, thedigital samples are sequentially stored in the memories 32, 34,respectively.

In response to a read enable signal, R, on the R/W line produced bycontroller 36, during recall, the digital samples stored in the memories32, 34 are sequentially read from the memories 32, 34 in the same orderas they were stored and at the 500 MHz rate in response to samplingpulses produced by the 500 MHz sampling pulses produced by pulsegenerator 24. The digital samples sequentially read from the memories32, 34 here pass through a pair of digital to analog (D/A) converters38, 40, respectively, as shown. It follows then that the signalsproduced by the D/A converters 38, 40 are signals equivalent to thesampled signals produced by samplers 18, 20 except that the memories 32,34 provide zero order hold circuits which effectively filter frequencycomponents greater than f_(o) /2, here 250 MHz, represented by equations(7) and (8), respectively.

It follows then from (7) and (8) that the dominant frequency componentof the signals produced by D/A converters 38, 40 will be at a frequency(f_(r) -n_(x) f_(o)) where n_(x) is an integer and (f_(o) +f_(r))/f_(o)≧n_(x) ≧(f_(r) -f_(o))/f_(o). Therefore the signals produced by D/Aconverters 38, 40 may be represented as:

    cos 2π(f.sub.r -n.sub.x f.sub.o)t                       (9)

and,

    sin 2π(f.sub.r -n.sub.x f.sub.o)t,                      (10)

respectively.

Alternatively, the frequency components of the signals produced by D/Aconverters 38, 40 may be represented, in the frequency domain, as:

    δ[2πf-2π(f.sub.r -n.sub.x f.sub.o)]+δ[2πf+2π(f.sub.r -n.sub.x f.sub.o)] (11)

and,

    δ[2πf+2π(f.sub.r -n.sub.x f.sub.o)]-δ8 2πf-2π(f.sub.r -n.sub.x f.sub.o)]                   (12)

respectively.

The signals produced at the outputs of D/A converters 38, 40 are fed toa second pair of samplers 42, 44, respectively, as shown. The samplingpulses produced by pulse generator 24 are fed to samplers 42, 44, asshown. It follows that the frequency components signals produced at theoutputs of samplers 42, 44 may be represented as: ##EQU4## respectively.

It also follows that the signals produced at the outputs of samplers 42,44 may be, in the time domain, represented as: ##EQU5## respectively.

The signals produced at the outputs of samplers 42, 44 are fed to asumming network 48, the signals produced by sampler 44 first being fedto a 90° phase shifter 46, as shown. It follows then, from equations(15) and (16) that the output of summing network 48 is a compositesignal made up of a plurality of radio frequency signal components whichmay be represented as: ##EQU6## the plurality of radio frequency signalcomponents being separated in frequency from each other an amount ofpredetermined relationship to the selected sampling rate; here suchcomponents being separated one from another by the sampling frequency ofthe sampling pulses produced by pulse generator 24, here f_(o) =500 MHz.It is also noted that one of the radio frequency signal components ofthe composite signal has the frequency of the received radio frequencysignal; the one of the radio frequency signals represented in equation(17) when nf_(o) =n_(x) f_(o).

The composite signal produced at the output of summing network 48 is fedto a bank of output filters 50, here a bank of filter output band passfilters 52a-52o having overlapping pass band frequencies over thepredetermined bandwidth here 4 to 8 GHz, as shown in FIG. 3. Band passfilters 52a-52o each have a bandwidth equal to the frequency separationof the frequency components of the composite signal so that only one ofsuch components can pass through any one of the filters 52a-52o here 500MHz. The center frequencies of such filters 52a-52o are here 4.25 GHz;4.5 GHz; 4.75 GHz, . . . 7.75 GHz, respectively, as indicated in FIG. 3.The outputs of output filters 52a-52o are fed to a switch 54, as shownin FIG. 1. Switch 54 is here any conventional radio frequency switchadapted to couple the output of one of the band pass filters 52a-52o toa radio frequency amplifier, here a travelling wave tube (TWT) 56selectively in response to a logical control signal on lines 58'a-58'o.The generation of the logical control signal will be describedhereinafter. Suffice it to say here, however, such switch 54, inresponse to such logical control signals, couples the one of the outputfilters 52a-52o having in the middle portion of its pass band thefrequency of the received signal and thereby couples the one of theplurality of each frequency signal produced at the output of summingnetwork 48 through such selected one of the output filters to TWT 56.The other ones of the plurality of produced radio frequency signals arerejected by the operation of the switch 54 and hence are not coupled tothe TWT 56. The one of the produced radio frequency signals having thefrequency of the received signal is amplified by the TWT 56 andretransmitted via transmitting antenna 60.

In operation, and considered as an example a received signal having afrequency f_(r) =4.8 GHz, from the discussion above such signal may berepresented as:

    E.sub.r =cos 2π(4.8×10.sup.9)t                    (18)

The frequency components of the signals produced by sampler 18 may fromeq (7) be represented, in the frequency domain, as: ##EQU7## and thefrequency components of the signals produced at the output of sampler 20may from eq (8) be represented as: ##EQU8## The sampled signals passthrough A/D converters 28, 30 and are stored in memories 32, 34 here ata rate of 0.5 GHz as described above. During recall the samplers readfrom the memories 32, 34, are converted to analog signals by D/Aconverters 38, 40. The dominant frequency components of the analogsignals may, from equations (10) and (12) be represented as:

    δ[2πf-2π(4.8-5.0)×10.sup.9 ]+δ[2πf+2π(4.8-5.0)×10.sup.9 ]          (21)

and,

    δ[2πf-2π(4.8-5.0)×10.sup.9 ]-δ[2πf-2π(4.8-5.0)×10.sup.9 ]          (22)

where, here n_(x) =10.

The analog signals are fed to the second pair of samplers 42, 44 toproduce a plurality of signals having frequency components which may berepresented from eqs (11) and (12) as: ##EQU9## respectively.

The signal produced at the output of sampler 42 and phase shifter 96 areadded together in summing network 48 to produce a composite signalwhich, from eq (17), may be represented as: ##EQU10## From eq (25) iffollows that the composite signal has the following frequencycomponents: 0.2 GHz; 0.7 GHz; . . . 3.8 GHz, 4.3 GHz, 4.8 GHz, 5.3 GHz,7.8 GHz, . . . It is further observed that the frequency components areseparated one from another by an amount having a predeterminedrelationship to the known sampling rate; here such components beingseparated one from another by the 0.5 GHz sampling rate. For reasonsdiscussed above, the details of which will become apparent hereinafter,the logical control signals fed to switch 54 via lines 58'a-58'oselectively couple the one of the output band pass filters, here filter52c, having a bandwidth from 4.5 GHz to 5.0 GHz as shown in FIG. 3, toTWT 56. It follows then that only one of the plurality of radiofrequency signals of the composite signal produced by summing network 48passes to TWT 56, such passed signal having the same frequency of thereceived signal; here a frequency of 4.8 GHz.

Referring again to FIG. 1, as described above a portion of the receivedradio frequency signal is fed to a bank of filters 16, here made up offifteen band pass filters 22a-22o tuned to contiguous portions of the 4GHz to 8 GHz bandwidths as shown in FIG. 2. Each one of the band passfilters 22b-22n has a pass band of 250 MHz; the center frequencies offilters 22b to 22n here being 4.5 to 7.5 GHz, respectively, as shown inFIG. 2. Filters 22a and 22o here have a band pass of 375.0 MHz; thecenter frequency of band pass filter 22a being 4.1875 GHz and the centerfrequency of band pass filter 22o here being 7.8125 GHz. As shown inFIG. 1 the outputs of band pass filters 22a to 22o are fed tocorresponding ones of a plurality of detectors 62a to 62o, respectively,as shown. The outputs of detectors 62a to 62o are fed to correspondingones of a plurality of comparators 66a to 66o, respectively as shown anda corresponding plurality of diodes 64a to 64o, as shown. The outputs ofdiodes 64a to 64o are coupled together and through a resistor 70 to asumming amplifier 72 as shown. Also fed to the amplifier 72 is a biasvoltage V_(B), here providing a voltage equal to the voltage dropproduced across a forward biased one of the diodes 64a to 65o, forreasons to become apparent.

In operation, if the received radio frequency signal passes through oneof the band pass filters 22a to 22o, say for example filter 22a, arelatively large detected voltage is produced at the input of diode 64ato forward bias such diode; the remaining diodes 64b to 64o being fedwill relatively low voltages remaining back biased. The detected voltageat the input to diode 64a is coupled to amplifier 72. The level of suchdetected voltage is however reduced by the voltage drop produced acrossdiode 64a. The original detected voltage level is however restored bythe V_(B) bias voltage also fed to amplifier 72 so that the voltageproduced at the output of amplifier 72 on line 74 has the same level asthe detected voltage fed to the input of diode 64a. Each one of thecomparators 66a to 66o here produce a logical 1 signal when the levelsof the signals fed to it are equal and produce a logical 0 signal whenthe levels of the signals fed to it from the one of the detectors 62a to62o coupled to it is less than the level of the signal fed to it by line74. Hence, in the example where filter 72a passes the received signal,comparator 66a produces a logical 1 signal and comparators 66b to 66oproduce logical 0 signals. It follows then, in the general case, thatthe logical signals produced by comparators 66a to 66o provide anindication of the one of the filters 22a-22o passing the received radiofrequency signal. It is also noted that if the receiving signal has afrequency which passes through a pair of filters having adjacent passbands logical 1 signals will be produced by a pair of the comparators64a to 66o. Decoder 80 is provided to resolve the ambiguity; here suchdecoder 80 is designed to indicate that the received signal has ineffect, passed through the one of the pair of filters 22a to 22o havingthe lowest pass band. In particular, decoder 80 includes, here, fifteenoutput lines 58a to 58o and produces the following logical signals inresponse to the following logical signals produced by comparators 66a to66o:

                                      TABLE I                                     __________________________________________________________________________    COMPARATOR             LINE                                                   66a                                                                              66b                                                                              66c                                                                              66d                                                                              -- 66m                                                                             66n                                                                              66o                                                                              58a                                                                              58b                                                                              58c                                                                              --                                                                              58m                                                                              58n                                                                              58o                                   __________________________________________________________________________    1  0  0  0  --                                                                              0  0  0  1  0  0  --                                                                              0  0  0                                     1  1  0  0  --                                                                              0  0  0  1  0  0  --                                                                              0  0  0                                     0  1  0  0  --                                                                              0  0  0  0  1  0  --                                                                              0  0  0                                     0  1  1  0  --                                                                              0  0  0  0  1  0  --                                                                              0  0  0                                     0  0  1  0  --                                                                              0  0  0  0  0  1  --                                                                              0  0  0                                     0  0  1  1  --                                                                              0  0  0  0  0  1  --                                                                              0  0  0                                     '  '  '  '  --                                                                              '  '  '  '  '  '  --                                                                              '  '  '                                     '  '  '  '  --                                                                              '  '  '  '  '  '  --                                                                              '  '  '                                     0  0  0  0  --                                                                              1  0  0  0  0  0  --                                                                              1  0  0                                     0  0  0  0  --                                                                              1  1  0  0  0  0  --                                                                              1  0  0                                     0  0  0  0  --                                                                              0  1  0  0  0  0  --                                                                              0  1  0                                     0  0  0  0  --                                                                              0  1  1  0  0  0  --                                                                              0  1  0                                     0  0  0  0  --                                                                              0  0  1  0  0  0  --                                                                              0  0  1                                     __________________________________________________________________________

In this way, only one of the lines 58a-58m may be logical 1 in responseto a received signal having a frequency within the 4 to 8 GHz band.

The logical signals produced on lines 58a to 58o are fed to a memory 82and are stored therein when the digital samples of the beat frequencysignals passing through low pass filters 28, 30 are stored in memories32, 34 in response to a write (W) signal on line R/W. During recall,i.e. when a read signal (R) is produced on line R/W, the stored logicalsignals stored in the memory 82 are read therefrom and produced on lines58'a to 58'o, such signals being produced during the period of time thestored samples stored in memories 32, 34 are read therefrom. Lines 58'ato 58'o contain the same logical signals produced on lines 58a to 58o,respectively, and hence the signals produced on lines 58'a to 58'o arein accordance with signals on lines 58a to 58o, respectively aspresented in the TABLE I referred to above. Switch 54 responds to thelogical signals in accordance with TABLE II, below, to couple one of theoutput band pass filters 52a to 52o to the TWT 56:

                  TABLE II                                                        ______________________________________                                        LINE                                                                          58'a 58'b   --    58'm 58'n FILTER COUPLED TO TWT 56                          ______________________________________                                        1    0      --    0    0    52a                                               0    1      --    0    0    52b                                               '    '      --    '    '    '                                                 '    '      --    '    '    '                                                 0    0      --    1    0    52n                                               0    0      --    0    1    52o                                               ______________________________________                                    

In operation, and referring also to FIGS. 2 and 3 and considering alsothe example above where the received signal has a frequency equal to 4.8GHz, it is noted that such signal will pass through input filter 22c. Asa result of the received signal passing through input filter 22c alogical 1 signal is produced by comparator 66c and logical 0 signalswill be produced by comparators 66a to 66b and 66d to 66c. As a resultof these logical signals a logical 1 signal is produced on lines 58c andlogical 0 signals are produced on lines 58a, 58b and 58d to 58c, asindicated in Table I. During recall, while the composite signal producedby summing network 48 has a plurality of radio frequency signalcomponents here, from eq (25), frequency components includingfrequencies of: 3.8 GHz; 4.3 GHz; 4.8 GHz; 5.3 GHz; 7.8 GHz as describedabove, the logical 1 signal produced on line 58'c and the logical 0signals on lines 58'a, 58'b and 58'd to 58'o cause filter 52c to becomecoupled to TWT 56 as described in accordance with TABLE II (filters 52a,52b and 52c to 52o being electrically decoupled from TWT 56 in responseto such logical signals). It follows then that, referring to FIG. 3, theone of the plurality of produced radio frequency signal components ofthe composite signal having the frequency of 4.8 GHz is passed to theTWT 56 for retransmission; all other ones of the produced radiofrequency signal components of the composite signal being electricallydecoupled from TWT 56.

It is noted that the arrangement of the pass bands of input filters 22ato 22o and the pass bands of output filters 52a to 52o, as shown inFIGS. 2 and 3, is such that if the received signal has a frequency whichis at the cut off frequency of a pair of output filter having adjacentband pass frequencies, i.e. for example, a received signal having afrequency of 5.0 GHz which is at the cut off frequency of both outputfilter 52c and output filter 52e, the received radio frequency signalwill pass through input filter 22d to cause switch 54 to couple outputfilter 52d to TWT 56. In this way, the one of the plurality of radiofrequency signals produced by summing network 48, having the 5.0 GHzfrequency pass through filter 52d, and in particular such one of theproduced radio frequency signals will pass through the middle portion ofthe output filter 52d. Consequently, the system 10 ensures that only oneof the plurality of radio frequency signal components of the compositesignal produced at the output of summing network 48 will pass to the TWT56 and that with this arrangement of input filter pass bands and outputfilter pass bands the produced radio frequency signal component desiredfor retransmission passes through the middle portion of the selected oneof the output filters 52a to 52o and thereby enables such system 10 toretransmit a radio frequency signal having some finite bandwidth.

Having described a preferred embodiment of the invention otherembodiments incorporating these concepts may now become readily apparentto those of skill in the art. It is felt, therefore, that the inventionshould not be limited to the disclosed embodiment but should be limitedonly by the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A digital memory system comprising:(a) means forseparating an input signal into a plurality of signal channels, each oneof the signals in each one of the channels having a frequency f; (b)means for storing samples of the signals fed to each of the plurality ofsignal channels at a rate less than the Nyquist sampling rate, 2f; (c)means for sequentially reading the stored samples from the storingmeans; (d) means for combining the samples read from the storing meansinto a composite signal having a plurality of frequency componentsseparated in frequency from one another by an amount having apredetermined relationship to the rate at which samples were stored inthe storing means; and (e) means, responsive to the frequency of theinput signal and fed by the composite signal, for coupling a selectedone of the produced plurality of frequency components of the compositesignal to an output.
 2. The digital memory system recited in claim 1wherein the coupling means comprises:(a) an input bank of band passfilters, having contiguous pass bands, fed by the received signal; (b)means for detecting which one of the band pass filters in the input bankof band pass fiters passes the received signal; (c) means, including anoutput bank of band pass filters having overlapping pass bands, fed bythe composite signal; and (d) means, responsive to the detecting means,for coupling the one of the plurality of frequency components of thecomposite signal having the frequency of the received signal to theoutput.
 3. A digital memory system, comprising:(a) means for separatinga received signal, having a frequency, f, into a plurality of signalchannels; (b) a first plurality of sampling means, each one thereofbeing fed by the received signal having the frequency, f, in acorresponding one of the plurality of signal channels and a train ofsampling pulses having a pulse repetition frequency less than 2 f, forproducing samples of the signals in the plurality of signal channels atthe pulse repetition frequency; (c) a plurality of memory means, eachone thereof fed by the samples produced in a corresponding one of theplurality of signal channels, and responsive to the sampling pulses, forstoring and retrieving the produced samples in response to such samplingpulses; (d) a second plurality of sampling means, each one thereof beingfed by a corresponding one of the plurality of memory means and thesampling pulses, for sampling the retrieved samples at the pulserepetition frequency, and including means for combining such sampledretrieved samples into a composite signal having a plurality offrequency components separated in frequency one from another by anamount having a predetermined relationship to pulse repetitionfrequency, one of such frequency components having the frequency of thereceived signal; and (e) means, responsive to the frequency of thereceived signal and fed by the composite signal, for coupling the one ofthe plurality of frequency components of the composite signal having thefrequency of the received signal to an output and for decoupling fromsuch output the other ones of the plurality of the frequency componentsof the composite signal.
 4. The digital memory system recited in claim 3wherein the coupling means comprises;(a) a plurality of input band passfilters tuned to continuous portions of a predetermined band offrequencies and fed by the received signal, each one of a portion of theplurality of input band pass filters having a bandwidth less than thepulse repetition frequency; (b) a plurality of output band pass filterstuned to overlapping portions of the predetermined band of frequenciesand fed by the composite signal, such output band pass filters havingbandwidths greater than the bandwidths of the input bandpass filters inthe portion thereof.